Government ministers must examine the expense accounts of all state agencies under their remit, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said today.
Mr Cowen told the Dáil that he didn't believe that lavish spending by Fás executives while in the US should have happened.
The state training agency, which has an annual budget of €1 billion, spent over €643,000 on transatlantic travel over four years.
Mr Cowen, who yesterday defended Fas chief executive Rody Molloy as an "excellent public servant" told the Dail today: "I don't believe that there are items of expenditure there that should have been incurred. That is clear."
"I’m not standing over any profligate spending or any spending that is unauthorised," he said.
"What we need to ensure is that the accountability of the organisation is such that we find the full remit of what was going on and that process is in place."
Investigations into Fás by the Comptroller & Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee must be awaited, Mr Cowen said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny referred to the bill for $400 at a nail bar in Florida and a corporate credit card with a €76,000 limit. "Is this appropriate expenditure of taxpayers' money when 10,000 people a month are losing their jobs?" Mr Kenny asked.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore queried if the extravagant expenses were being incurred in other state agencies.
But Mr Cowen replied: "I'm not aware of any other agency which has this issue before them."
He added: "But clearly ministers should contact those agencies under their remit and have their chief executives confirm that their arrangements are in compliance with the regulations in place."
Earlier, Mr Kenny said: "I'm acutely concerned about what appears to be extravagant waste, abuse of privilege and failure to account properly for the taxpayer."
He added: "It is too cavalier an approach. People pay their taxes, 2,500 a week go on the unemployment lists, and here you have all these stories about wild extravagance on West Cocoa Beach somewhere in Florida."
Mr Molloy is due to appear before the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday.
PA